Starting the Conversation about Investing in Volunteer Engagement

There’s a widespread myth that, in my experience, is the root of many of our sector’s biggest challenges. Far too many people (including leaders of nonprofits and other community agencies) believe the widespread myth that, because volunteers give their time freely, it must be free to engage them. This assumption is simply not true. Of course, effectively engaging and supporting volunteers takes time, supplies, equipment, training, technology, and the leadership of paid staff or highly skilled volunteers. Together, these represent valuable resources.

In a twist of irony, the responsibility of making the case for the investment of time, technology, space, equipment, and staff often falls to the very people whose salaries are part of the equation. While it may, on the surface, appear to be self-serving, we in volunteer engagement must overcome that misplaced concern and, instead, actively advocate for the investments needed to support volunteer engagement for capacity-building and mission-fulfillment. Fortunately, a growing body of resources can help with this case-making.

Recently, Better Impact hosted two webinars on the topic - Activating the Power of Strategic Volunteer Engagement for a Better World: A Conversation Starter for Nonprofit Leaders and Closing the Gap: Pathways to Increase Funding for Volunteer Engagement – available on demand. Additionally, recent studies, toolkits, and conversation guides are available to help cite the research-based benefits of strategically engaging volunteers, building case statements, and even countering objections frequently stated by potential funders. Sometimes, however, we need to start with the basics of compelling messages about the value that volunteers bring to the organization.

So, as a first step to writing convincing case statements, here are a few messages* you can use to get in front of funders or grant-makers, get the attention of nonprofit leaders or secure a meeting with fund development/advancement staff.

“We are leveraging resources when engaging volunteers.”

• Think of all the ways that supporting volunteers in our organization already helps us extend our resources!
• Volunteers become some of our most avid advocates—attracting in-kind gifts and word-of-mouth attention.
• Volunteers help us reach new audiences geographically and otherwise, expanding our services beyond what staff alone can achieve.

“Volunteers are a pipeline for community input and advocacy.”

• Any organization that receives private donations or public support is truly owned by the community. As such, engaging volunteers from the community nurtures transparency and trust – which is in short supply these days. So, any means to fuel transparency and nurture trust is worth considering and pursuing.

“Volunteers extend our services beyond what our budget alone can buy.”

• Instead of saying that “volunteers save us money,” explain that volunteers are resource-multipliers. If we perpetuate the myth that volunteers save organizations money, we are implying that, if we all had the funds we needed, volunteers would be expendable. This is not true because volunteers are more valuable than the cost involved in supporting them.

“The return on investment (ROI) with volunteers is tremendous when they are strategically deployed and well managed.”

• Be confident that the investment of funds and time to support volunteers provides a significant return to the organization. ROI is of great interest to both private and public funders. While it is difficult to put an exact value on the time a volunteer mentors a child or advocates for a clean environment, we can still speak in terms of the outcomes and impact of the work of volunteers. For example:
• Last year, our volunteer tutors prepared 25 low-income, high-risk young people for successful entrance into a junior college.
• Thanks to the dedicated work of our cadre of music festival volunteers, our event brought in more than $100,000 in tourist dollars to our community in economic impact.
• A team of pro bono volunteers skilled in software development upgraded our existing software and developed new report formats so that we now can track client service benchmarks clearly.

“Volunteers are often financial donors, too.”

• People give their money where they give their time. Volunteers are more likely to donate financially than are non-volunteers and often give to the organizations where they engage. In fact, many people leverage their volunteer experience as a way to determine if they want to contribute financially. Again, this underscores the idea that volunteers are resource-multipliers!

Start a conversation today. Download the guide, “Activating the Power of Strategic Volunteer Engagement: A Conversation Starter for Funders and Nonprofit Leaders,” for more tips and resources and make the case for investments of time, resources, and funds to support volunteer engagement at your organization – and then be sure to share the stories of how that investment reaps a return in mission-fulfillment!

*Adapted from Leading the Way to Successful Volunteer Involvement, by Betty Stallings.